


Boy With the Orange Hair

by Comrade Lucia (Quantin_of_the_Lethe)



Series: The Adventures of Lucia [4]
Category: Mother 3
Genre: Angst, Gen, Introspection, Trans Girl Lucas (Mother 3)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 23:21:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29500548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quantin_of_the_Lethe/pseuds/Comrade%20Lucia
Summary: The Masked Man finds a small reprieve from the hurricane around him.
Series: The Adventures of Lucia [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994812
Kudos: 8





	Boy With the Orange Hair

The fire died down as the sounds of the forest provided a calming ambience. Lucia looked around her. Boney was curled up next to her. Duster's snoring could be heard from ten feet away, also providing a source of comfort, knowing she wasn't alone. Kumatora was nowhere she could see, but it was Kumatora. She'd be okay. She folded her hands behind her head, her hair, now grown out past her shoulders, gently draping over the top of her body like a rudimentary blanket. The night sky was in full view, as it was nearly every night. She figured she'd do what she and Claus had done all those years ago when they went camping--play connect-the-dots, and tell stories.

As she completed her fifth constellation, she ran her hands over herself, wondering if Claus would look any different if he were here. Probably taller, his smile more mischievious, his hair somehow redder. She wondered what he would say if he saw her right now. Something like, "Looking cute, slowpoke," with his green eyes twinkling.

Gods alive, she missed him.

* * *

"Did he fucking run away again?" a Pigmask asked as they rummaged through Osohe Castle's kitchen. "That's the fifth time this month."

"Report it to Andonuts," his superior barked. "In the meantime, leave no stone unturned! We can't have him escaping."

"Seems like Andonuts doesn't know what he's doing."

"I'd shoot you for insubordination, but you might be right. His attempts to make machines out of humans has...mixed results. I heard he even tried it on his own kid."

"Fuuuuck," the Pigmask responded. "That's seriously messed up."

"You're telling me. Hate the guy. But, well, He says we need him, so here we are."

"Hunting down his pet. Again."

"Don't call him that, he might hear you!" the superior said, suppressing a giggle as they left the room.

In one of the cabinets, the Masked Man was hiding. He'd been extremely careful to not move a single millimeter, not breathe a fraction of a hair. He needed this time.

No, this wasn't the Masked Man. This was Claus.

His green eye couldn't see anything, but his red eye, gifted with night vision, stared at the helmet he held in his hands, feeling its strange contour, remembering when it was first put on him by Dr. Andonuts. He gritted his teeth at the thought of the man. But his hatred for the man who'd opened his veins and replaced them with wires was dimmed by a much larger, much more pressing emotion.

 _Lucas._ As he sat in the cabinet, his breathing labored from the decreasing amount of fresh oxygen in the confined space, his mind flashed to the last time he'd seen the rebels first-hand. There was the Princess Kumatora, the thief's son, and Boney for some reason...and a girl. A girl with strikingly blonde hair, long but with a few errant hairs at the top forming a small curl. A girl who, despite wearing a pink and yellow seifuku, looked every bit as Lucas.

And her smile...he knew that smile anywhere. It was the smile from when Lucas had finally beat him in a footrace, the smile when Mom made them omelets, the smile when he showed off, proudly, the snail he'd found in the garden and promptly tried to put down Claus's shorts. Was...was this girl...?

No. She couldn't be. Not because Lucas couldn't be a girl, although that opened a can of worms he didn't really have the energy to confront right now. No, she couldn't be Lucas because in personality, she was nearly unrecognizable. She had an air of authority. She was giving orders. The others listened to her. She was casting with...with PK Love. She was _pulling Needles_. This, this couldn't be his timid, weak, scared, anxious little brother. Or...maybe it could?

He looked at his helmet again, noticing his distended reflection in the polished steel. A monster, not of his own choosing, but he still had his orange hair.

"Log entry in private storage," he murmured. "Clearance Code Omelet." The computer beeped to know that his log was ready. He sighed.

"I don't know when I'm going to see my brother again. _If_ I see him again. I don't know if any of my memories are going to survive what's about to happen to me. But tell him this. Tell him, God, please tell him, that I love him. Tell Lucas I love him. And I miss him. End entry."

As he put the helmet back on, tears streamed down the right side of his face.


End file.
